EdSource Today Marking a dramatic shift in philosophy and policy, the State Board of Education unanimously adopted a new and more complex system Thursday for evaluating California schools and districts using multiple measures of student achievement and school performance.

Standardized tests scores, the primary basis for judging schools in the past, will just be one component of the new state accountability system when it takes effect in the 2017-18 school year.

Also included will be graduation and suspension rates, an indicator of college and career readiness, progress of English learners in becoming proficient in English. Still to be fully developed will be measures of “school climate” and parent involvement.

The decision came after over two years of deliberations, involving dozens of hours of public testimony, from students who implored the board to make school climate a priority and parent advocates who want schools to be held more accountable for engaging student’s families.

Civil rights groups urged the board to use the new system as way to narrow achievement gaps. Business groups suggested ways to develop an effective way to measure whether students are ready for college and the workplace.

The more than 100 individuals who spoke Thursday reiterated those themes. But many prefaced their one minute remarks by praising board members, all of whom are appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, for incorporating their ideas. The overall school accountability framework, they said, is solid.

“We commend board and staff for monumental progress,” said Estelle Lemieux, a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association. “The evaluation rubrics should provide the foundation for dealing with the whole child,” leading to more equitable treatment of students and improved results, she said.

Wesley Smith, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, representing superintendents and other school district leaders, called the new accountability system “a model for students across America.”

Three years ago the Legislature approved legislation mandating that the State Board of Education pay attention to eight priority areas when it passed a new formula for funding schools.

Board member Sue Burr said laws guiding the board’s work are clear.

Student subgroups that fail to improve in more than one priority area will get gradually more intensive help, starting with county offices of education. That could trigger involvement of a new state agency, the Collaborative for Educational Excellence, and ultimately to intervention by the state superintendent of public instruction.

The board, she said, would apply pressure on those charged with monitoring school districts. “We take our responsibility seriously,” she said.

But state board President Michael Kirst cautioned that an accountability system alone cannot move schools to improve. The new state agency, for example, won’t be a “magician” that will raise the state’s low test scores in math, he said.

The tool for displaying the new accountability system will be fully developed over the next year. It will consist of several elements: like an instrument panel in a car, a one-page dashboard will show how well districts, schools and student groups rate on each performance indicator. It will also point to model practices that can guide school and district improvement.

Disagreements remain, however. The biggest is how to present school and district performance on each indicator. While the final design is months away, the board is leaning toward designating each indicator’s performance by color, without summarizing a school’s performance in a single index or score.

Some parents who spoke at the meeting Thursday said they needed a simpler way to compare schools and understand how their schools are doing than what the state has in mind.

Christine Chu, a third grade teacher in Los Angeles Unified, said the board should be able to display how schools are doing in several areas, while also creating a summary that shows differences in school performance more clearly. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, she said.

EdSource is an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to engage Californians on key education challenges.

For more on the state’s new accountability system, check out this explainer on <URL destination="https://edsource.org/2016/state-board-poised-to-pass-new-accountability-system-lcff-essa-evaluation-rubrics/569023">EdSource’s website.

‘A’ for Accountability

CALmatters, Cal State Long Beach and the Southern California News Group invite you to attend the panel discussion “A for Accountability: A Report Card on California’s New Public-School Assessments.”

The event will be 6-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 14 at Cal State Long Beach.

The California State Board of Education is in the process of overhauling its system for evaluating public school performance to include much more than just test scores. Propelled by a new federal law, factors such as graduation rates and how fast English learners gain proficiency will line up alongside old-school measurements such as math and English test results to shape the new “report cards.” Come hear the experts offer up their assessments of this new system.